ICT News

Articles you should not miss.

We are constantly following open source developments around the world and capture some of them for local access. We are in support of Open Data, Open Hardware, and global cooperation for digital inclusion.

November 1st, 2019 - The Managing Director of Retention Range (pty) ltd was invited to be a guest speaker at Lorwana Primary School prize giving cereemony. Among the dignitaries was Kehitlhilwe Kgwakgwe, Digawana chief, and other members of bogosi, the Headmaster of Lorwana Primary School, Ms Mareledi Thipe, the headmaster of Gathwane Primary School, Representatives from neighbouring schools and parents. The theme for the day was "Hard Work and Commitment: A recipe for Success".

May 21, 2019 - Retention Range (pty) ltd was among the stakeholders that participated in the World Telecommunications and Information Society Day (WTISD) which was held in Sefhare on the 17th May 2019. The theme of the day was “Bridging the standardization gap”.

The beneficiary of the 2019 WTISD legacy project was Mmutle Primary School. As part of contribution to this project, Retention Range donated 10 RETENTION desktop computers preloaded with RETENTIONedu educational package...

June 19th 2018:RETENTIONedu is an educational computer for schools and students at home. It comes preinstalled with educational content and offers a dynamic learning experience. RETENTIONedu belongs to RETENTION brand which has two other product suites namely;

RETENTIONlegacy for home and office use running the well known Microsoft Windows, and

RETENTIONclassic which is an open source alternative to Microsoft Windows running Linux Mint

28th March 2018 -Retention Range (PTY) Ltd launches Botswana’s locally produced Desktop Computer. With the increase in costs associated with ICT, Rentention Range has taken an initiative to produce a range of affordable Desktops Computers for the people and businesses across all sectors of the economy.

January 11, 2018- As per the report, Barcelona city plans to replace all user applications on its computers with open source alternatives. After finding a proper replacement for all proprietary software, the final step would be to...

Gaborone, Botswana – March 27, 2017 – Retention Range, is pleased to announce the launch of Ubuntu Mirror for Open Source Softwares. This will enable Retention Range to offer developers and the ICT community local access to a range...

Cambridge, United Kingdom – February 23, 2017 – Collabora Productivity, the developers behind LibreOffice Online, has partnered with Retention Range in Botswana, making Collabora Online available for the first time in Africa...

Publications of interest

Aug 12, 2019 Huawei kicked off its annual developer conference today, and it’s just announced HarmonyOS. The new, open-source platform is ostensibly the final name for its Hongmeng OS. HarmonyOS is “the first microkernel-based distributed OS for all scenarios,” consumer group CEO Richard Yu told attendees at the Huawei Developer Conference.

The Huawei CEO also noted that the platform will eventually support a range of apps, specifically noting that HTML5, Linux, and, crucially, Android apps will be compatible. “They will all be able to run on our OS in the future,” Yu says. Yu added that the ARK Compiler used in HarmonyOS app development will also support Kotlin, Java, Javascript, C, and C++.....

May 20, 2019 Google denies the Chinese IT giant Huawei access to Google's proprietary components of the Android mobile operating system which threatens IT security. This highlights the importance Free Software has for technology users, public bodies, and businesses. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) presents three essential lessons from this case.

Following the U.S. administration's decision to effectively ban American companies from trading with with the Chinese company Huawei, Google suspended all business with the company. This affects all software which is not covered under Free Software licences. In practice, Huawei's upcoming and potentially also current phones will no longer get support and updates for the Android operating system.

They will also not have access to the proprietary Google apps and services like Gmail and Google Play. Although proprietary software should be avoided in the first place....

May 14, 2019 - Schools in Indian state of Kerala are expected to save ₹3000 crore (roughly $428 million) by choosing Linux as their choice of operating system for school computers under a state-wide project.

Southern Indian state Kerala is known for its beautiful backwaters. Kerala is also known for its education policy. The first 100% literate Indian state has made IT classes mandatory in schools since 2003 and around 2005 they started to adopt free and open source software. It was a long term plan to boot out proprietary software from the education system.

As a result, the state claimed to save around $50 million per year in licensing costs in 2015. Further expanding their open source mission, Kerala is going to put Linux with open source educational software on over 200,000 school computers and ‘claims’ save around $428 million in the process, reported Financial Express.

January 10, 2019 - All Toyota vehicles and Lexus vehicles are going to use Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) majorly for the infotainment system. This is instrumental in Toyota Motor Corp because as per Mr. Lyons “As a technology leader, Toyota realized that adopting open source development methodology is the best way to keep up with the rapid pace of new technologies”.

Toyota among other automotive companies thought, going with a Linux based operating system might be cheaper and quicker when it comes to updates, and upgrades compared to using proprietary software.

According to Mr. Lyons, it goes back to 2011, “Toyota has been an active member and contributor to AGL since its launch more than five years ago, collaborating with other OEMs, Tier 1s and suppliers to develop a robust, Linux-based platform with increased security and capabilities”

December 4, 2018 - Finland based Necuno Solutions has announced that it is collaborating with KDE to bring Plasma Mobile to the Necuno Mobile. Necuno Solutions claims that its flagship project Necuno Mobile is “a truly open source hardware platform.”

The privacy and security of our users are the main focus of Necuno Solutions, and we are working with Free Software communities to ensure that the hardware is a welcoming platform for Free and open source operating systems in the mobile ecosystem. Necuno chose KDE Plasma for the operating system because of “their shared values regarding open source, privacy, and security. KDE has reached very far in the mobile ecosystem by leveraging the power of the community.

December 3, 2018 - The recent growth of open source has been phenomenal; the latest GitHub Octoverse survey reports the GitHub community reached 24 million developers working across 67 million repositories. Adoption of open source has also grown rapidly with studies showing that 65% of companies are using and contributing to open source. However, many decision makers in those organizations using and contributing to open source do not fully understand how it works.

The collaborative development model utilized in open source is different from the closed, proprietary models many individuals are used to, requiring a change in thinking.

An ideal starting place is creating a formal open source program office, which is a best practice pioneered by Google and Facebook and can support a company’s open source strategy. Such an office helps explain to employees how open source works and its benefits, while providing supporting functions such as training, auditing, defining policies, developer relations and legal guidance.

October 22, 2018 - 3D Printing is not a new thing to hear about. It is a very popular industry right now that began in the early 80s. But how different is Open Source 3D Printing from proprietary designs? How does this affect its applications in Science and Medicine? Let’s read on.

Just like a conventional computer printer is used to print in 2D on paper, the job of a 3D printer is to create actual three-dimensional objects, solidified from a digital 3D file, aided by a computer of course. They use different processes by adding materials layer by layer in most methods. Open Source 3D Printing eliminates all the issues in the proprietary section. Not only does it reduce costs, it enables easier innovation to solve issues faced during 3D manufacturing.

August 11, 2018 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which is best known for organizing the Oscars has announced its love for open source tech. It has joined hands with the Linux Foundation to establish the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF).

The objective of ASWF is to increase the quality and quantity of contributions to the entertainment industry through open-source projects. It will provide a neutral platform to facilitate cross-project efforts, a common built and test infrastructure. The founding members behind this initiative include big names like Google, Walt Disney Studios, Cisco, DreamWorks, Intel, SideFX, Blue Sky Studios, Epic Games, Animal Logic, etc.

2016 - Although not limited to software, open source is dominated by this particular technology and by the open source software community. Open source software does not just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply with tge criteria discussed further down in this article.

There are many different variants of open source licenses (Apache, GPL, Lesser GPL, Eclipse, etc.) with some subtle and not so subtle differences between all of these variants. Total cost of ownership is a financial estimate intended to help buyers and owners determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or system. It is a management accounting concept that can be used in full cost accounting. In order to calculate the long-term price or total cost of ownership of a software product, one needs to identify all of the different components associated with taking a software product into use.

JULY 31, 2018 - This month, the city of Rome has begun making LibreOffice the only available suite of office productivity tools on its workstations. The first group to switch uses office tools less than one hour per month.

Rome will uninstall the proprietary alternative gradually, depending on the amount of time that office tools are used. This transition schedule is based on measurements that took place between June to December last year.

The city government decided to switch to using free and open source software in October 2016. The first step, an inventory of all desktop applications and server-based solutions, was completed in early 2017.

JULY 31, 2018 - SAN FRANCISCO and TORONTO, July 25, 2018 /CNW/ - Scotiabank today announced it will share bank-developed applications with the open-source software community, marking a significant milestone in the Bank's digital transformation.

The announcement was made by Justin Arbuckle, Senior Vice President and leader of The Platform Organization at Scotiabank, in a customer keynote at the Google Cloud Next '18 conference in San Francisco.

JULY 2, 2018 - Governments the world over are trying to provide citizen-centric services. Our own country has taken the ‘Smart City’ initiative. The idea is to provide better governance, which can be achieved by the digitisation of services. Open source software can bring such services to the citizen accurately, speedily, securely and in a user friendly manner.

The success of digital governance depends on the ability to enable multiple government agencies and departments to communicate with each other. All the work that has been done earlier should be interoperable with all the new initiatives to be implemented in the near future. In addition, the focus is on enabling the best citizen experience, making available the relevant information and being responsive by leveraging the latest technology trends (like analytics)...

MAY 8, 2018 • Canonical’s Ubuntu distribution for Linux has earned a reputation for being user-friendly, with editions aimed at desktop, server, cloud, and IoT users. This changelog tracks updates to Ubuntu across its release cycle, including its LTS (long term support) releases.

April 24, 2018 • A company from the Czech Republic is trying to raise money to bring a modular and open source router to the public. It has a number of features that can’t be found in the current line up of routers available for purchase.

The goal of the campaign is to create a modular router. The team behind the project knows that not everyone needs a powerful, high-end router.

February 21, 2018 • Southern Africa: EOH has announced the acquisition of LSD Information Technology (LSD), a company specialising in Linux and enterprise open source technology. The partnership addresses an identified gap in the market by bringing the value and innovation...Read More...

Jan 9, 2018: On Tuesday, Ford announced an extensive set of initiatives to enhance the development of connected cars. Among the multi-pronged approach are ongoing plans to work with Qualcomm on V2X communications for cities, cyclists, and cars. If there’s a common theme in Ford Motor Company’s approach to the future of transportation, it’s that there needs to be some rules.....Read More...

As per the latest report from Top 500, Linux now runs on all of the fastest 500 supercomputers in the world. The previous number was 498 as remaining two supercomputers ran Unix.

Top500 is an independent project that was launched in 1993 to benchmark supercomputers. It publishes the details about the top 500 fastest supercomputers known to them, twice a year. You can go the website and filter out the list based on various criteria such as country, OS type, vendors etc."....Read More...

Published September 13, 2017 by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Linux and Open Source. Oracle joined the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and released Kubernetes on Oracle Linux and its own Kubernetes cloud installer. At The Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit in Los Angeles, Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Foundation and Oracle, announced that it was joining the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as a Platinum Member.In addition, Oracle is releasing Kubernetes on Oracle Linux.With this move, as Zemlin noted "six of the largest clouds are now running Kubernetes."....Read More...

Published August 09, 2017 by Justin W Flory. Tirana, Albania, cites security, performance, and cost as driving forces in selecting Nextcloud for its government operations.Open source software has come a long way since the turn of the century. Every year, more and more people are embracing open source technology and development models.Not just people, though—corporations and governments are exploring open source solutions, too. Read More...

19th June 2017, The future is in open source, and proprietary will have to either get on board or be left in the dust. Is proprietary software dead? Maybe not entirely, but pretty soon, its place in the enterprise will be greatly diminished due to the rapid adoption of innovative open source alternatives. While proprietary tools often boast small, yet stable, customer bases ...Read More...

Jun 07, 2017, Toyota is taking advantage of the Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) Platform in its 2018 Toyota Camry. AGL will be supporting the inVehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems and not the engine control unit.....Read More...

As of today (June 1, 2017), we've been talking about open source for exactly 19 years, 3 months and 23 days. The start date was February 8, 1998, when Eric S. Raymond distributed an open letter by email with the subject line Goodbye, "free software"; hello, "open source". What followed was a deliberate (though barely coordinated) effort by many geeks (including yours truly and this magazine) to make open source a thing. I am sure that the line would have continued rising toward the sky if Google hadn't tired of scanning books in 2008. Read More...

Published May 20, 2017 by Kim Komando. For years, people have grumbled about the price of software. Adobe products have always been expensive, and many customers were agitated when the company shifted to “Creative Cloud,” which meant a monthly or annual subscription.Read More...

Today, April 28th 2017, WikiLeaks publishes the documentation and source code for CIA's "Scribbles" project, a document-watermarking preprocessing system to embed "Web beacon"-style tags into documents that are likely to be copied by Insiders, Whistleblowers, Journalists or others. The released version (v1.0 RC1) is dated March, 1st 2016 and classified SECRET//ORCON/NOFORN until 2066.

Apr 7, 2017, Debian Stretch feels like an excellent release by the Debian project. The final stable release is about to happen in the short term. Among the great things you can do with Debian, you could set up a VPN using the openvpn software. In this blog post I will describe how I’ve deployed myself an openvpn server using Debian Stretch,...

THE UK GOVERNMENT has dealt a blow to Microsoft with the announcement that it will adopt open source LibreOffice software across the public sector. The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) announced...... Read More...

UK Government buyers have signed a new commercial deal for Open Source office applications on desktop, mobile, and cloud. The "Cloud Transition Agreement" between the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), an executive arm of the Cabinet Office, and British Open Source software firm Collabora Productivity, states the Government's commitment to Open Source and Open Document Format, and offers major cost savings for public sector bodies. "Moving to the cloud, adopting Open IT Standards, and saving the taxpayer money are three key Government objectives .... Read More...

Free Software isn’t just about getting shiny new programs for no cash – it’s part of a much larger social movement. Mike Saunders and Graham Morrison explore the history and future of FOSS. There’s a problem with the word ‘free’. Specifically, it can refer to something... Read More...